Rock, Paper, Scissors

By Brian Bailey
©2016 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.

The 2016 East Carolina spring football game got off to a great start, and it all began with a traditional childhood game.

Kurt Benkert got the play and knew he was going deep with his first throw.

"We had a deep ball called with a double move," said Benkert. "I had Jimmy (Williams) on one side and Trevon (Brown) on the other so I told them to 'Rock, paper, scissors' to see who I was going to throw to. Trevon won so I just gave him a chance, regardless of the coverage."

“My quarterback said just go make a play,” Brown said, not mentioning whether he took paper, rock or scissors. "This offense is designed for the playmakers to make plays and that's what I did."

Overall it was a fairly clean spring football game. There were a few penalties and plenty to work on heading to fall camp. But all in all it was a positive start for Scottie Montgomery at East Carolina.

“I’m excited with where we are,” Montgomery told the media afterwards. “I thought we could play about a half of football and that’s what we ended up playing. I like the tempo of our offense. We’ve got to clean up some mental errors and penalties. The defense felt the tempo today for the first time in a long time. We’ve got to tackle the football better.”

Only the two quarterbacks battling for the starting job played in the spring game, and both played well.

Kurt Benkert threw for 216 yards and the touchdown. He also ran for a score. Benkert sat out all of last year with the knee injury he suffered two weeks into camp.

"The first week (of spring football) was tough because I had literally just been cleared to practice," Benkert said. "Sometimes it's sore, but I really don't worry about it at all. It feels good to be out here playing."

Phillip Nelson threw for 231 yards but didn't throw a touchdown pass. Nelson did lead his squad to more first downs than Benkert, 14-10.

"I thought we did a good job today," said Nelson. "I thought it was very clean. Sure we had a couple of plays that we might like to have back, but that's what the summer is for. We are going to keep working and getting better heading to camp."

The two Pirate quarterbacks will head to camp still battling for that number one job according to ECU offensive coordinator Tony Petersen.

"I thought they both did some really good things," said Petersen. "So, no, I don't think either one separated himself from the other. I think it will go into camp."

Petersen knows that naming a starter will be a key heading into the season. The timing, however, is still up in the air.

"How long we wait before naming a starter will probably be up to Coach Montgomery, whatever he is comfortable with," said Petersen. "I feel like we may go into the season feeling that we have two quarterbacks that can help us win football games. That's certainly not a bad thing."

Montgomery seemed pleased with his players and staff after this first spring. He knows there is still plenty or work ahead, but he seems pleased with where this team is heading into spring and summer conditioning.

“We had some big-time plays today at receiver, and we kind of know the guys we can lean on, and now we’ve got to make sure we’ve got our team put together from a depth standpoint,” Montgomery said. ”We’ve got to work on putting together a good 1A team and a good 1B team offensively and defensively.”

As spring football games go, this one goes down as very entertaining. The Pirates didn't have any big injuries, either, which is also a big plus.

Now the wait begins.

Football breaks until the season opener on September 3rd.

Thank goodness for Pirate baseball to help bridge the gap.

BB

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